Continued physical or psychological dependence on a substance or behavior despite negative or even life-threatening physical or societal consequences. Can also refer to any of the many and varied treatments available for addiction, any of the many and varied explanations for the proposed mechanisms behind addictive behavior, or other social, physical, political, moral, ethical, medical, religious, and legal issues surrounding addiction and its treatment.
Questions tagged [addiction]
20 questions
105
votes
2 answers
Did 20% of US soldiers in Vietnam use heroin, 95% of whom quit afterwards?
The following claims were made around 04:50 of this TED talk by Johann Hari:
20 percent of all American troops were using loads of heroin, and if you look at the news reports from the time, they were really worried, because they thought, my God,…
d-b
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96
votes
3 answers
Does porn destroy dopamine receptors?
Kevin Majeres, a psychiatrist claims that porn destroys dopamine receptors. A quote from his website:
This is why pornography causes a vicious circle. When someone views
pornography, he gets overstimulated by dopamine; so his brain destroys
…
Akli
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37
votes
2 answers
Is Alcoholics Anonymous effective?
In my research I've found statistics for spontaneous remission from addiction: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10976668. The statistics for A.A. seem to be a little more difficult to find/interpret. For example:…
user776
35
votes
1 answer
Is pornography addictive?
I saw the Gary Wilson's talk, The Great Porn Experiment, which states that pornography causes arousal addiction which in turn is supposed to have a lot of negative effects like:
ADHD
Social anxiety
Depression
Performance anxiety
OCD
In this talk,…
anon
31
votes
3 answers
Does addictive behavior exist?
There are widespread claims that you can get addicted to video games, shopping, internet, whatever, even sex. Not merely "like it very much", but addicted, as in addicted to alcohol.
According to Wikipedia:
is any activity, substance, object, or…
user288
16
votes
1 answer
Can Marijuana use result in addiction?
From the drugabuse.gov website:
Long-term marijuana use can lead to addiction; that is, people have
difficulty controlling their drug use and cannot stop even though it
interferes with many aspects of their lives. It is estimated that 9
…
Sonny Ordell
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15
votes
0 answers
Does giving a drug to a former addict cause reestablishment of chemical dependence?
Joel Spitzer, an anti-smoking counsellor, claimed on whyquit.com that there is a law of addiction which is:
The law of physiological addiction states administration of a drug to an addict will cause reestablishment
of chemical dependence upon the…
George Chalhoub
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15
votes
1 answer
Drug addiction: "You can only help if the person wants to be helped"
"A drug addict can only be helped if he/she wants to be helped." - is a common advice/statement.
Have there been any studies/research which either confirms or rejects this statement?
Looking at for example: drug addicts that became clean / failed to…
erhr
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14
votes
1 answer
Can you get addicted to cheese?
In the documentary "Super Size Me" an interviewee of Morgan Spurlock says:
If you look at the menu at a fast food restaurant, they use all of the addicting
components.
They'll take a slab of meat, cover it with cheese - cheese of course, which…
0xC0000022L
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12
votes
1 answer
Is it fair to say that "everything we think we know about addiction is incorrect"?
A popular channel on YouTube that I previously held in high regard recently published a video, where several surprising claims are made. I think I can sum the claims up as follows:
Addictive chemicals in drugs are not the underlying reason for…
0xDBFB7
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9
votes
1 answer
Do video games lead to increased depression, anxiety and aggression?
Nicholas Kardaras is a addiction expert who was a professor at Stony Brook Medicine. In his 2016 NY Post article he claims that screen time is extremely harmful to children. The article intermingles anecdotes, expert opinions and references to…
svavil
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9
votes
2 answers
Does smoking under three cigarettes a day prevent addiction?
I heard that if you smoke at most three cigarettes a day you don't get addicted to smoking. A similar idea was introduced in a How I Met Your Mother episode. Is this true?
Alexandru
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7
votes
2 answers
Are cigarettes addictive?
At least one person has published alleged doubts about whether cigarettes are addictive, with their doubt/claim being supposedly backed by at least one scientific study.
Is this a reasonable question (for example is there a good definition of the…
ChrisW
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6
votes
0 answers
Are fish addictive to cats?
Today I found an interesting article that claims that feeding fish to cat is not a good idea:
Fish should be avoided, except for occasional use, for many reasons including: heavy metal contamination, vitamin E depletion and the fact that cats get…
Matteo
- 161
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6
votes
2 answers
Is addiction a disease?
In the DVD Pleasure Unwoven, Dr Kevin McCauley, a medical doctor, claims that addiction is a disease.
In the video he argues against the choice model, and explains the neuroscience of addiction
I found nothing in his arguments convincing. There…
Jerome Viveiros
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